Idealism and Star Trek

“You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you’re gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible — that maybe you survive.”

(The above quote is from Doctor Who, not from Star Trek, but it turns out that I needed to look to another series to sum up the Trek universe.)

I wasn’t around, but I’m told the original Star Trek had a special relationship to its time. The 60s drew battle lines that are still with us today: feminism, race, the reshaping of the family. JFK, RFK, and MLK were dead. The prospect of civilization-ending nuclear war was an everyday reality, or at least perceived to be so.

Star Trek wasn’t the only hopeful vision of the future, but it was uniquely casual about it. Uhura’s presence on the bridge wasn’t, in the context of the show, a big deal; not because she was black or because she was a woman. She was simply a competent professional and was treated as such. Spock got ribbed about his green blood and his pointy ears, but it was all friendly. Star Trek was a vision of the human race who had made it. We were past our social growing pains.

Okay, sure, the yeomans who brought the drinks onto the bridge were all women, and the women all had bare legs, and of course one could assume the Klingons were evil bastards. Kirk’s woman-on-every-planet approach wasn’t necessarily feminist-approved. But something made it work: by displacing conflicts to other worlds, Trek could comment quite directly on the issues of the day. At its best, Star Trek is a deeply political, progressive, idealistic show.

The Next Generation was even more explicit (some would say preachy). It mentions on several occasions that the Federation has no need of money, though it doesn’t exactly make it clear what has replaced it (since trade missions still go on, there’s got to be some sort of exchange at work). The Prime Directive — to support spacefaring civilizations without interfering with pre-spacefaring ones — is a celebration of cultural diversity. TNG’s Enterprise delivers medicine or other humanitarian aid on a regular basis. The Federation is an economic growth machine which hesitates to use its unmatched military force, much like the United States at our best. And of course, the Klingons are our allies now, itself a statement on the old show.

In Voyager, a crew initially on opposite sides of a conflict are stranded in a distant part of the galaxy, and are able to form a cohesive whole. Then they spent seven seasons representing the best of what humanity is, making a solid streak of friends on the path back toward home.

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The last few years has seen some very good science fiction.

Battlestar Galactica is riveting and relevant, asking deep questions about tribalism, terrorism, and desperation. The interplay between military and political leaders and objectives, and the ever-ratcheting stakes and fear, were a pretty excellent vehicle for thought during the Bush Administration (not to mention a hell of a story). However, it’s far from an idealist vision: aside from the apocalyptic nature of the storyline, Galactica’s humanity is always in conflict, scheming and killing and wrestling for power. No-one makes it through the story untainted.

Doctor Who has come back with a vengeance, making the most of its odd little position (after all, this is essentially a kid’s show about death). The Doctor ran away as a frightened little boy, and 900 years later, he’s never stopped running. He is a harbinger of death, and has a unique relationship with it. Who hasn’t shied away from political commentary, but such commentary is not very deep and not very central to what is essentially a character-driven show.

Stargate is probably the closest approach to the tone of Trek, and it’s a good substitute. Like Trek, it’s quite episodic; you can usually watch one episode without being lost or ending on a cliffhanger. Like Trek, the crew as a whole are a unified force for good, making a good name for Earth through the galaxy; and like Trek, that leaves plenty of room for individual character flaws. Still: Stargate Command is a military-run organization, kept secret from the populace of Earth. Our highly trained team represents a certain kind of ideal, but it’s not the diverse and successful future that we’d hope for humankind.

I’ve missed Star Trek, despite the plethora of choices, and the politicism, even the preachiness, are a significant part of what I’ve missed.

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Going into the new Star Trek movie, I felt there were two things to evaluate: is it a good movie, and is it Star Trek? Certainly there’s plenty of ground still to cover in the TOS or pre-TOS era; I have no problem accepting the premise of new actors playing younger versions of Kirk and his crew.

It turns out the answers are closely tied to each other. It’s an excellent movie. It’s compelling, and the actors are spot-on. It’s full of traditional Star Trek clichés (time travel, an event that threatens ‘the entire galaxy’) as well as some new ones (my god it’s full of lens flares, and Kirk hanging by his fingertips). It’s a delight to see these characters again.

It feels like a geniune part of the Trek Universe. The Vulcans are Vulcans, the Federation is recognizable. The Romulan villian is uninteresting and doesn’t ‘feel’ very Romulan, but he’s a lone actor, unconnected to the Empire, so I’m willing to let it slide.

But it’s a dark story, and the timeline it creates as this new story moves forward is going to be a dark one. There’s a planet to rebuild. Where’s the idealism? So I’m left with a conflicting opinion. It’s a great movie, and it deserves to wear the title of Star Trek proudly. But I still miss Star Trek.

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I opened with a Doctor Who quote from the episode “The End of the World.” Taken out of context like I did, it sounds hopeful. But that episode is, indeed, about the end of the world (5 billion years hence). The Doctor also says: “You think it will last forever, people and cars and concrete. But it won’t. One day it’s all gone. Even the sky.”

Maybe this is just, to borrow a phrase, a sadder and wiser Trek. Maybe what I miss is being eight years old, watching Encounter at Farpoint, thinking about a glorious future. But here’s the thing: despite the last decade, despite religious fundamentalism and terrorists, despite Bush/Cheney’s torture program, despite it all, I still think we, the human race, are going to make it. I still think that women and men across the world — or more than one world — can treat each other with dignity and respect. I still think the day will come when we will have the resources to ensure no-one goes hungry or uneducated.

Aren’t there any sci-fi screenwriters out there who still agree?

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Permalink | May 25th, 2009

Posted by Dan Hallock | Filed under Politics, Science Fiction